Going to tell you how you, too, can join in the celebration. But were going to kick this off with one of the Coolest Companies that i have seen in the past 500 episodes. From the moment you step inside the headquarters of the l. A. Based circus you are immersed in a world of wild, inventive entertainment games. Brent and eric are the Innovative Minds at the helm of this fast growing business. But these friends never intended on turning their passion for interactive arts into a thriving experience entertainment company. Now theyre on a mission to reinvent the way people play. They create margarita making robots. And wild Virtual Reality adventures. Whoo oh, my god, theyre just so cool. So, as you can imagine, visiting the office of the l. A. Based company two bit circus is a thrill. Down, down, down. To the left, to the left. Stand up tall. Arms in the air. Cofounders brett and eric started the Experiential Entertainment Company back in 2012. Were basically a big band of nerds. Roboticcists, weve been building big toys with lacers and robots for years. Youre going to jump up and down three times to start this game. All right. Go for it. Both had a background in engineering, and in big top. Eric and i were both obsessed with circus and carnival. Were both trained clowns. Youre both trained clowns . Its true. Before you met each other . Trained clowns. And you met each other not on clown business . Engineer clowns who like found each other. The friends werent planning on starting a business together. They were just two guys who loved making interactive art in their downtime and sharing it with their friends as a sort of open mic night for cool stuff. It was called mind share and it was in downtown l. A. Youre the comedians going out there and trying out your stuff. We were all trying to oneup one another. Invaluable to be able to push it in front of people and try and fail and see what doesnt work. This is this is an early robot bar tender prototype. Its not working. Its not happy hour yet. People saw potential in their work, and started hiring them to bring their games to small Corporate Events and holiday parties. Then came the call that changed everything. Microsoft calls you microsoft. Says hey weve got a party coming up, would you guys come and bring all that stuff . We saw some of those and wed love you guys to do the entertainment. This was the Tipping Point. Suddenly they had a real and growing business. With brands like intel, pepsi and honda calling to work with them. In the beginning, this was very much passion based. There doesnt seem to be a big focus on is there going to be revenue at the end. It wasnt about making money. With serious clients lined up, clowning around wasnt an option. They hired lots of closeknit friends to help with their rapid growth. But, business was unpredictable. So, firing those friends became frequent. Its really a hard combination to also have a bottom line to worry about and say, hey, you know, we love you, and right now, in order to keep this thing alive, like we got to part ways. How do you get people to come back and work with you again . It helps to be really transparent through the process. And i think when people feel like youre entrusting them with the information, you know, so that they can make their decisions, you know, then you have a longterm friend. Many big name clients paid for projects months after delivery. Which made managing cash flow extremely challenging. Big companies have very different timetables than small companies. 120day payment cycle is absolutely abusive. We just sort of were okay the wrong side of cash flow. We literally didnt know how we were going to pay everybody a week out. There are so many times we should have blown up on the rocks in a million pieces. It was absolutely see all this gray hair . All this red hair . Covering up all the gray hair. With the demand to deliver growing by the day, implementing a streamlined Creative Process was a must. Their team was made up of Innovative Minds with very diverse backgrounds. When youre sitting around the table, and you have ten people very passionate about their ideas, which i imagine happens here, how do you finally distill that . I think our process is a little unique in that we build more ideas maybe than we should. Thats one of the wonderful things about having a working shop. We can come up with an idea in the morning, and test it by the evening. And if its no good, out the door. In order to raise capital they needed a Business Model that was more scalable. So they added two bit circus events to the mix. With their steam carnivals. Despite their success, the manpower required for such shortlived events wasnt sustainable for the business. We were like, oh, my god. That was so much work. It was a year to plan it, a week to set it up, and we operated it for three days. It was like crazy. So after 18 months of brainstorming, and now with years of experience under their belt, they came up with their most ambitious concept to date. A chain of permanent microAmusement Parks. Blending reimagined carnival and arcade games with all kinds of Virtual Reality experiences in a 50,000 square foot space. Im addicted to this. Our park will be filled with gags like this. Things that just sort of take you out of the world for a second. Two bit circus has raised more than 21 million and plans to open the first microAmusement Park next year in downtown los angeles. There you go. There you go j. J. Oh, yeah. When you look around your offices here, can you believe that this is how you make your living . This is a company . A successful one . It never never thought for a moment we would be in a place like this doing what we do for a living, coming to work every day and building awesome, crazy entertainment. The founders of two bit circus know that fun events are where the customers are. Thats a lesson another successful entrepreneur has learned that has helped his company go global. Hes the founder of a bean bag furniture business who insists that he and his employees get out of their stores, step away from their computers, and go meet their customers at hundreds of gatherings every year. Try this thing out. We know youll like it. Here we go. Its fun. Oh, there you go. Its flexible. And you may be able to find it at a fair or festival near you. You really have to sit in it to believe it. It is a line of bean bag furniture and accessories launched in 2009. This new take on an old item is a hit wherever the sales team goes. Kids go with their parents and they kind of get board. Then they can run and jump into it. The founder of the New Hampshire based company figured out early on that he needed to meet his customers facetoface. You really have to think out of the box. We cant sit still and wait for people to come. The strategy has been wildly successful. The company is now worth about 20 million with dozens of stores in the u. S. And asia. Theyre starting to franchise, as well. Its not enough to have a brick and mortar store or a great online website. This is the best marketing you can do. If they all get asked why hes still attending these events, the answer is because customers need to touch and feel. So, theyre like are you still coming . Yeah, im having fun. Were talking. Whats wrong with us. We understood that in order to sell the product, we have to get as many people as we can to try the product. You can see him and his team at places like the heritage days festival in massachusetts and super smack talk in virginia, yogibo has more than 400 events a year. You might understand how like our flagship item, how that could be a chair recliner, a couch, a bed all these Different Things until you get to see it. He initially launched this concept as an online only business but he abandoned those plans when sales were sluggish. We built up a website. But then we realized with no matter how much Online Marketing we did, people didnt get that. Like oh, its bean bags. Selling through other retailers seemed like a good idea, too. But the employees there simply werent as enthusiastic as they should be. The stores that we worked with, we couldnt get them to emstraight the product. So they just placed it in the corner, or the staff of the store didnt really encourage them to try it. And yogibos first brick and mortar location didnt make a splash either. We opened the store in sunny months in new england, which was unheard of. And it was very quiet. While still trying to figure out the most effective way to sell, eyal took a chance. He listened to a friend who said he should sell at a festival. That experience got him hooked. We sold a good amount of units, but the amazing part was the week after that festival, more than 100 people came to the store and they were like, hey, we saw you at the festival, it was so awesome, and they came to the store to buy the products. And that week, i was like, okay. This is how its going to work. He saw similar results every time yogibo branched out. It was easy for him to commit to this Growth Opportunity for the long haul. Literally every weekend i was going to every festival in new england to demonstrate the product. And i think that was the Tipping Point that really made the breakthrough for the brand. Yogibo doesnt worry about these events hurting their online or brick and mortar numbers. Each Sales Channel complements the other. All the pieces make the company. Like its a 33 split between these three things. They bounce off each other in a positive way as opposed to this one is cannibalizing this piece. The company has three strategically placed event teams in the northeast. Theyre constantly on the move to keep the brand visible. We have an event thats basically like 7,000 people. Theres probably a good 3,000 that are trying, like in and out, between kids, and families, and stuff like that, its hectic at some point. But, they love it. Not every event is perfect but yogibo does its best to minimize the risk. We always try to send the best sales people that we see fit for that event. But its all the little variables like whats our booth space like . Who are our neighbors at the booth . Whats the traffic going to be like . Whats the crowd like . How many people are going to benefit from that. Despite occasional frustrations the staff continues to do its homework. To make sure theyre participating in the best events resulting in higher sales. We look at the glum beurre of people that normally go to the event, we look at our net sales from years past. We look at different product that we can maybe sell at the event, or new product. Eyal and the yogibo team say their dedication to these fairs and festivals isnt changing. Its a proven model and no matter their size theyll continue to make their brand of furniture to their customers. It defines who we are as a company. Even if we were like 100 Million Company we still want to be there on main street because thats the best way people are going to find our products. We dont want to talk to someone over a live chat. We want to talk to them in person. And we always look. Fairs and festivals and Amusement Parks thrive in the warm weather. But how do you draw visitors when youre pushing Christmas Carols and mistletoe . Santas village is a small family owned Amusement Park in New Hampshire with a holiday theme that attracts guests from may to december. Ap more than 60 years in business the reindeer roller coaster and santa sleigh ride is still a draw for customers but its the annual reinvention that keeps staff and guests spreading good cheer. People love christmas. Dont even bother asking the date at Santas Village. Because here, its always december 25th. If you give joy, you get it back. And our santas helpers know that. And customers are more than happy to join the celebration. Most everybody is in the Christmas Spirit when theyre here whether its in june, july, august, or the first of december before christmas. This jefferson, New Hampshire, Amusement Park is a community staple. Norman and cecil started the company in 1952. The inspiration came from their daughter elaine. One day we were driving down route 2, and little fawn jumped out in front of our car. And i asked dad if that was santas reindeer . And that property just happened to be for sale. Which is where santa still exists today. But he thought an Amusement Park might be good. More than six decades later the company is owned and operated by the familys third generation. Norman and cecils grandchildren. Mele and christian as well as meles news nick. Its fun. It can be difficult at times. Its a lot of responsibility. But this trio welcomes customers to Santas Village seven months a year. Whether it feels like christmas outside or not. We call it santas summer home. This is where he comes to warm up from the north pole, take a break from making the toys, visit with the kids. Thats how we get away with the christmas in july. With attractions like rudys transit coaster, the reindeer rendezvous and a chance to visit with saint nick himself, marketing is easy. The most challenging part of the business is getting families to return for, in some cases, generations. We need to create an awesome product. Something that they love, that they see, and want to come back again and again. And in order to keep them coming back, we have to keep evolving, keep innovating, and keep exceeding their expectations. The fact that jefferson is somewhat isolated means most of the customers are making the conscious decision to come to Santas Village. Customers are always looking for whats new. And what old reliables are still there. Being a destination for a lot of people you have to not only keep up what you have but bring in something every year because people expect that now. Some of the newest additions have already become favorites. We introduced the water park about five years ago. Weve added to that. Elf university where the kids go around with their tickets and find all the elves, thats newer. The most arduous tasks are done when the park is shut down from january to memorial day. This is when the constant brainstorming of new ideas turns into reality. Any expansion at Santas Village has to be planned out. A small local population means a limited pool from which to hire staff. These small growth adds five or six or seven or eight employees a year, and thats something manageable that we can find those excellent people to work with us. If we grew exponentially, it would be much harder for us to staff our park. Despite longer summer hours, the park still attracts its biggest crowds around the holidays. Were open at christmastime. Christmastime really is our busiest time. People travel, we have snow, its cold. But its beautiful. Were only open two days a week versus seven days a week in the summer. The familys work is paying off. The proof is the repeat customers. Our best marketing is word of mouth. Our guests will remark to all of their friends and family, and tell them about the wonderful experience here, and that is our main form of advertising. Numbers are up, and positive reviews online are helping drive foot traffic, too. The best gauge of our Customer Feedback happens to be through tripadvisor in which we were just selected one of the top 25 Amusement Parks in the united states. While the times have ink chaed the goals for this family remain the same. Improve the Customer Experience at Santas Village, and preserve this small businesss legacy. What norman and cecile started 63 years ago is just amazing. Hopefully we can continue that tradition for the next 63 years and keep those generations of families coming back year after year. Summer is over. Which means that if youre doing things right, this is the time you should start thinking about the holidays if you can believe it. So, what should you be doing to get customers to pop by your business rather than your competitors when theyre ready to do all that Holiday Shopping . I went over to the new york now show to catch up with the ceo of see endless. She creates marketing and Business Development strategies for a wide variety of high end clients, and she shared some great suggestions on prepping for the holidays. By what date should you have your Holiday Plans set in stone . Should definitely be working on it now. You know. Not in q4 when youre panicked. So having more time sort of plan, it allows you to, you know, book more events, things like that in advance. All right. Lets talk about what we need to do for the hole days now. Absolutely. Lets start with the first thing we should be thinking about. I think that brands are becoming obviously storytellers for a long time. What you want to be doing is having content driven events. You can do this online and offline. So if youre a bakery, you could have how to make the perfect dessert bar. Have customers come in, they see how to set up a beautiful table. But this is something you should do all year round or is it something you should just do over the holidays . You should do it all year round. The great thing about doing it in the fall is that you get a captive audience. While theyre learning about the dessert bar, you have them captivated, you interact with them. And then you can sell your product. You can say, hey, these are all of our holiday products. If you book now, youll get 20 off. Or youll get free delivery. So it incentivizes them to come and see the bar but allows you to show case your product for the fall. Its a little bit of a preview. Youre just trying to get as many customers through the door, in anticipation of the holidays being a great time to sell to them . Absolutely. The earlier you can capture your customers dollar the better. Then you dont have to worry as much. Capture their money earlier fall. Whether its by small events. Maybe you can book things earlier before it gets crazier around the holidays. So maybe its a book signing, local celebrity, all that stuff allows people to come into your store or business more. Capture the dollar earlier. Relieve a little anxiety wlit gets deep near q4 when there is not as much time. How about partnering with people . What kind of things can you set the groundwork for now . You know, so many things can go wrong with partnering. You need dates right, time right. You need times to figure out to market it on both sides. So the earlier can you plan it so now august, september is the perfect time. Sort of start thinking about who is the best partner . Who has a great social Media Presence. How youre going to sort of tease customers to come in for the event or whatever youre collaborating on. Got it. What other thing dozen i need to be thinking of today that i might want to launch on, you know, december 1st . Plan your marketing calendar early. I always tell people not to push the week of thanks giving. People are trafg. Theyre getting so many black friday emails. Send out emails the week before and the week after. So that they know before theyre sort of planning the shopping that they need to get into your store and afterwards if they still need products to, you know, because everyone no one gets it all done the first day. Youll have another chance to capture them and wont get lost in the sauce of the barrage of black friday email thats we get. Is the week before early enough i just feel like it gets pushed earlier and earlier all the marketing that stores do. You know, obviously if you can tease them earlier, its great. But i think that people dont necessarily start feeling that, you know, push to and arent as motivated to buy until its a little later in november. Right. And capture email addresses . Absolutely. Or social, people can follow you on social. And when partnering with people, partner with someone that has a bigger social Media Presence or email list than you so you get more exposure. Yes, you always do. Lindsey, thank you so much. Really appreciate your tips. Thank you. We have an exciting announcement to make. We are offering five people the chance to come on the program and give an elevator pitch in front of two buyers from sams club. Theyll be judging the pitches and theyll vote on who will be invited to their headquarters to make a more comprehensive presentation. Send us an email or video of your pitch or link to that video. This is our address be sure to include a short summary about your product. We look forward to seeing those pitches. When we come back, bar rescues answering a viewer question on xascaling a Service Business and we talk about how to hire a pr team. 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, so you can get business done. American express open. The more buyers get and more training we can do and kit get very expensive and the margins shrink. So my question is what advice do you have for scaleability with a Service Based business moving forward . You know, thats a great question. Too often the staffing gets ahead of the revenues and then the numbers really dont work. I think its how you dissect the numbers. Heres my solution. Take a look at the acquisition cost for every new customer whuch. When you budget it that way, look at it from the stand point and the Human Resource cost for the first transaction including training. So if every new Customer Acquisition in Human Resource training and marketing costs, lets say, 22, and youre targeting 100 new customers, do the math. You know the dollars they have to have in order to budget for the training and the facilities and resources to serve those new customers. Now time for the brain trust where we get the real scoop from people in the trenches dealing with business issues. Today we have jodie snyder, i met you when you just opened your Company Danny joe jewelry. And that was nine years ago . Yeah. Youve done so well since then. Thank you. Congratulations. And Andrew Pearlman who owns express spa which i have been a customer in. We have seen them in the airports. How many do you have . 52 locations and in the process of opening another ten before the year is up. Amazing. I want to talk about pr and hiring a pr company. You both came with someone from your pr teams. I think it is an incredibly hard job to hire an outside company to help with pr. I want to get from you guys what it takes to do it well. Lets start with you. Sure. I think one of the big mistakes is people assume that you just find the best pr firm in the world and give them the reigns and everything takes care of itself. And one of the things i found over the years is that you constantly have to tell them what is going on in your business. It needs to be managed like any other part of your business if you actually want success. You have, to as a result of that, find a group of people you truly believe in and also get along with. And who understand what youre doing. What i find is that its hard to measure, right . Youre paying lets say youre paying 7,000 a month retainer and its not like marketing like theyll go buy you ads and you find out theyre ads. They may come up with nothing in a month. It has to be a collaborative process dwoeven process. You dont think can you look aefrt Fashion Company and what theyve done. Its very important to figure out the dna of your brand, what is important you to and find a team or a firm that can execute your goals and you feel like there is a lot of synergy with. Lets take your dream is to have an article and think big. You want to be in the New York Times and have something on the today show and usa today. Thats a lot to ask. Three months have gone bichlt you pay them 21,000. They didnt get any of them, what do you . It depends on how you feel if they did their job. It cant be completely goal oriented n 15 years of managing pr agencies, i hoenl a strategy that similar to what youre saying work out where you said heres the target publication. Heres the target time frame. Its actually happened. It almost never happens. I think that were collaborative exactly the right word. And if youre collaborative with the pr agency, you have a sense ff you feel theyre doing their job well, it cant be just solely focused on something to be honest they dont have complete control over. Right. How do you work with them . I think its good to have high goals and expectations for them. But we always do is we have these are our number one priorities. These are the three things we like to accomplish. If a doesnt work out, heres plan b. I think you always need to were not just dont just focus on the one thing and if that doesnt happen we dont want to have nothing to show for the next three months. But lets say we cant get that big story that we want in this publication, this is our second choice or what is the angle we can change to make it happen . I think you just need to kind goff baof go back to the drawing board. You both did a great job with pr. Im glad to pick your brains and get your insight. Thank you so much. Thank you. This weeks your biz selfie comes from a big fan of the show, aaron barnes from vancouver, washington, the own of life butta. Its an Almond Butter infused with nutrient rich foods. I lot of selfies. I fund out about products i want to try. So why dont you pick up your smart phone and take a shot of yourself and your business, no professional shots, please, and send it to us at msnbcyourbiz. As we mentioned earlier, today marks our 500th episode. To celebrate, were looking back at our favorite stories and we would love for you to check them out. There are some great advice, lessons and a lot of fun as i learn thou negotiate at a fish market, go undercover as a mystery shopper, and run through fire all in the name of helping you run your business. Go to our facebook or twitter pages where you will find our top ten stories of the past 11 years. And if you have any questions or comments about todays show, email us at yourbusiness tas msnbc. Com. Police lz head over to our website. We look forward to seeing you next time. Until then, 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, so you can get business done. American express open. Welcome to politics nation. Donald trump struggled with race and equality continue to follow him. Senates sole africanamerican republican met with him with over his quote unsettling comments about the deadly violence in charlottesville last