Transcripts For MSNBCW Your Business 20171001

Hi, everyone. Welcome to your business, the show dedicated to helping your growing business. Own a busine you know managing the day to day operations while letting someones arretistic vision shi through can be tricky. I sat down with a florist in los angeles who has spent her entire career trying to strike that perfect balance. For more than two gdecade, jen r has shown how enduring the power of flowers can be. Known for her approach, jennifer is a goto florist for Hollywood Alisters and red carpet events. All of my inspiration really comes from architecture or interior design, fashion. Her ever einvolving creativity has been the driving force behind floral arts continued success. But hanging the business side of things has been an ongoing challenge from the start. When you first started, did you know anything with p and ls and marketing and Everything Else you need to know about . Gosh no. In f. Someone would have said this is what youre in for, honestly i dont know if i would have done it. Isnt that the beauty of things, like just jump in. Ive had a lot of trial and error for sure. And i had to learn to balance the creative with the business. That balance is easier said than done. And jennifer stantdly h lnifer desire to create constantly. Im obsessed with making things. And so i need to, you know i have to put myself on track and say what is the fraenlg hestrat. She finds creating two separate environments helps keep her focus. One to handle the nuts and bottom bolts of the business and the other to lets her imagination run wild. My mohome office is my brain time and when im connect the into the team and production, im here, its two different worlds. And when faced with daubtsing challenges, shes developed a unique way to tackle them. Its only taken 20 years, but when i come up against challenges and ive found that if i can turn it into somewhat of like a design challenge, then i become inspired. So you take your Business Issues and somehow turn them into a hey, this is a design issue. A creative somehow. And this even you can tackle it as a business issue. And then it becomes fun. And its not overwhelming. Over the years jennifer has seen how her creativity can be blinding at times when it comes to important Business Decisions line opening her first florl art retail space. It was hilarious. It took me probably about a year and a half to realize that i needed a huge sign. I know it seems really like of course. It really took me like a hot minute to get my stuff together. I was stressed. I was in over my head. I expanded a little too quickly. I had to acclimate for sure. In recent years, they have opted for popups. I think popup stores are an excellent opportunity to test your market, the demographic. And to experiment without long term risk. Although floral art has an ecommerce site, the online space has not been a primary focus for the company nor has all the competition. What about people just order in flowers for friends . Apps make it easy. I dont think its about fighting it. Its a different dem demograp c demographic. People come to us because they appreciate the design. A lot of Companies Sell flowers direct to on consumer. They broaden their base by going into chocolates or gifts. You on other hand went into furniture. Which didnt seem as natural an extension. Nobody said it made sense, right . Growing the floral art product line with high end furniture and accessories became more about enhancing the overall brand and less about making money. When you create a new product like these chairs which are gorgeous or these trays, which i also love, do you think through okay here are the costs, here is the potential revenue, will this be a big money maker or do you think im creative, i want to make this and just worry about the rest later . I would say with these particular pieces, i will make no matter what. And i will build it into my business plan. And while recognizing how instagram and pinterest friendly her designs are, jennifer has handed the social media reins over to the more sasavvy. All the more reason to outsource it because its not my favorite thing. Id rather be right here right now versus thinking about what something will look like on a camera. Why do you think youve been so on successful . I think its really just inspiration and my creativity. And somehow im finding my way back to that every time. Thats why i do what i do. Sports wear and fitness come underarrest arrest mower had to restructure. And with my fitness pal, its the largest fitness and Health Community in the world. Willie geist sat down with the founder to talk about competition, and giving back to the community. This is a top secret facility. What are they making on this line . This is something that we can build here really in a matter of days versus months or years. Walkings floor of his state of the art Innovation Factory in baltimore, kevin plank is obsessed with what is next. The process can just be better, safer, faster. But it has to become a commercial product so the consumer can say that is something that i want to warks it will make me a better is human, makes my butt look thinner. Raperhaps the most important quality. Now the head of a nearly 5 b build Global Sports empire started his First Business as o maryland. With the help of his wife, he sold roses on chasm pus. Grossed about 3,000, cost me about 1,000. Pocketed two grand. Not bad spending money. That is not normal for most college kids. Can you see something ahead for on yourself like this could be the first step in creating Something Else bigger . I learned that i was pretty good at creating a central idea of having a vision of what it could be. It was his next vision that would become americas second largest Sports Performance gear company on. A scrappy Football Player at maryland who never missed a practice in five years, plank was bothered by the waseight of the cotton tshirts he wore. What if we made something out of a synthetic material. Working out of his grandmothers basement after gladation in 1996, plank had 500 shir shirts made and began shopping them around to friends in nfl locker rooms. What was that first year like . Multiple voices like answering the phone, can i help you . Can i talk to your president . Just one minute. I used to carry two business cards. One said Sales Manager and another said president. He made his first deal with the Football Program at georgia tech. And the company grew steadily from there. In 1999, under armour had its break through moment when he got his gear in a movie. We had a big break with the movie any given sunday. Get a call on monday saying this is so and so, we want to use this in the movie. And i said great, where do you want me to send the invoice . Invoice . This is hollywood. No, everybody pays a good fair price. And we were paid 42,000 for any given sunday. You guys for your company for the better part of a decade were growing rocket ship to the moon, double digit growth every year. And then Fourth Quarter last year, you hit a little bit of a road block that scared wall street. What happened there . I think we found that there is a bit of a shifting market that is happening where the obligation of brands is to make sure that first of all freshness and newness, whoever makeses best products will win. And there was all these sorts of things converging at one time. Plank would rather be known for his stand on baltimore. A troubled city others have left for dead. His doechl Development Company has opened a hotel and distillery there and combined with public funds, plank will spend 5. 5 billion on a long term project to completely transform the citys distressed water front. I love blowing minds. I love people seeing things and saying i never could have thought or could have imagined. I hope to believe hope to be a representative of something that the American Dream is very much alive. And there is a lot of people that dont feel that. So we have too keep it going in the right direction. Your booth at a trade show is an opportunity to get the attention of new customers, but how do you get potential buyers to notice you when you are not the newest business on the floor . I went to new york now with Retail Marketing expert lindsay ann to see if we could give one Business Owner some pointers on how to change things up. Your booth is lovely. Thanks so much. Congratulations on this. Be mighty is our motto. How long have you been in business . 15 years. Show me what you do. Our core product is mighty wallet. I came up with this idea of a wallet that was all origami on so it is durable and sustainable. Show me your booths. How many times have you been to this show . Ive been there business 15 years and probably 12 years of doing these shows at least. And more than one a year im guessing. Yeah, were doing it twice a year. So 24 shows under your belt. Every show there is smals surprise that you didnt expect. You have your new ro dublgts in front . Yes, the mighty stash pack is my rye inventien reinvention of. So your idea is put the new stuff in front. Yeah. People can look up and see us as the wallet, bruh i think about it like you have three or five seconds to grab peoples attention as they are walking past. And so i try to create little anchor points. Well bring someone in who is an expert in trade show booths to tell you what you are doing well and where you could make improvements. This is behind zi. Nice to meet you. Thank you so much for doing this. On a scale from one to ten, how did he do . I think hes a nine. What is great about the book ends of the booth is he has consumer creates difference content. His instragram wall is here. So no matter which side im coming from, im captivated because i see dynamic pictures, colorful things. The other thing you want to do in merchandising, you want to convey Product Knowledge when the vendor schbts theisnt ther. If hes with another buyer, and i walk up, maybe i dont like the patterns there, but i see here that there are so many different possibilities and that could be a Tipping Point as a buyer. What else in here do you think terrence has done well . I was definitely drawn to this wall because of the stickers. If im a buyer and ive bought from him previously, id want to know what is knew. So have you done this before . Yeah, sometimes you are right, like were busy, buyers, that is the first thing that they will ask is what is new. So highlighting that, highlighting it on the podiums is something that i do and then telling the next important thing which is the best sellers. You like the new, best sellers. Is there something he could have done differently . I would say to make the text bigger. Maybe you have a big sign that says new and best seller. So if maybe they are on the other side of the aisle, that will captivate them. So if they have already been here and he they misses sign, they will get it with some bigger signage. So lets take about the new products. This is what you want to highlight. How did he do . I think there is are more of a seven. He does have some signage that says its new, but it needs to z be bigger. And his booth is so colorful. Hes an artist. The products are all made from 800 different artists, right . So hes a colorful booth and these are nothing colorful. Hes missing out on putting your instragram feed on the sides ever these or having just these in big bold colors. I also think that you do a better job with the wallets of conveying some of the things that the products can do. You do it a little bit over here, but not as much on these stands. So id have maybe signage that says kid s tossable, wash only. Ultimately what is more important, what your booth looks like or how good you are at reeling people in and being able to engage them in a conversation . I mean, i think that the first step with merchandising is getting them in the door. But then you have to convey Product Knowledge which i think youve done a really great job at. And then you have a great product, so that is the recipe for success. We wish you the best of luck. Its a beautiful booth. I hope everything goes well. Thank you for all your advice. Yes, thanks for your advice. Im here in the hallway with this weeks elevator pitcher. So nice to see you here. Welcome. Thank you so much. And you brought a model. This is my son. Is this your summer job . No, im just helping her out today. What is the name of your company . 13 one. And we make one of a kind rain jackets. I will admit when i heard about this company first, and inside you will tell why its special, i thought they werent going to be great looking because of how you make it. And im incredibly impressed. They look fantastic. Thank you. And now you will get a chance to tell the panel why they are special and what makes them different. You will be talking to two people. Alisha is the founder and adviser and investor in women entrepreneurs. And then also a very successful entrepreneur, plane times over, his latest company is ubee. That is great. All right. Lets go see them. Hi, im founder of 13 one. And this is my son wiring our jackets that are made from nasa developed technology. I learned about this wrapped in. We are the only Company Using this fabric. It has a Silver Lining that retains 90 respect abo of your. They weigh rest than one pound. Were asking for your help to to get these jackets in the hands of travelers and youts door enthusiasts. In 2016, outdoor Apparel Market was 7 billion and growing which is great for us. We launched our jackets in june and weve sold over 300 units through our Kick Starter Campaign and our website. We retail 175. Were asking for a 200,000 loan to increase marketing and sales and staff. Thank you. Thank you. Nice modeling there. Good job. Okay. You two, i need two numbers. One to ten, what do you think of the product and what did you think of the pitch. And you can throw in something for the model as well if you like. You know what is amazing, weve had a lot of mother son teams here and its really great. I love seeing that. Thank you. When you have zero budget for a model, you bring the family in. I feel like im going shopping because i want one. But what i think doesnt matter. Lets start with you. Okay. So i gave you a nine on the product. I love it. I think it looks super sharp. I loved hearing about the Nasa Technology and your personal story behind it. You talked about price. Really great. Now on the pitch side, i felt like there was a lot of really great information too. Everything there where i buy it, who your target market is, how big the market is, too, but i really want to hear more about your back ground. I dont know if you were a consultant, a banker. What are you bringing to the table in terms of Product Knowledge. And who are you surrounding yourself with. But overall, i thought it was excellent. And i also love the mother son team. Its great. Thank you. Well, i gave you an eight for product and a seven for pitch. The product, im going to be a customer. I love it. This is exactly the type ever thing i love. Especially when you travel. I love the fact that you thought about the pouch. And really you couldnt have asked for a better model in your son. I might need a little smaller size. We can do that. As far as pitch goes, the one big thing that was missing for me was your intaellectual property. You said you were the to hear tu might have, you know, exclusive rights to this material, for example, or that youre the only people in the world that can use it for a period of time. For us that is really important, particularly when youre going into such a competitive market and retail landscape. Thank you both very much for your advice, it was very helpful. Good luck to both of you. Youre going off to college, so good luck next year while your mom is home toiling away to pay for that college. Thank you very much. Good luck with everything. Thank you. Congratulations. Now, we have an exciting announcement to make about the elevator pitch. Were going to be offering five people the chance to come on the program and give an elevator pitch in the hopes of getting their product into sams club. Two buyers from sams club will be judging these pitches and will vote on who will be invited to their headquarters to make a more comprehensive presentation. Send us an email or video to your pitch. The address is yourbusiness msnbc. Com. Be sure to include a short summary about your product. We look forward to seeing some of those pitches and eventually maybe seeing some of you in sams club. When we come back, how do you grow your business while maintaining the integrity of your brand and culture . And our brain trust with some great insights on how to get retailers to say yes. 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. How do you scale a business and how do you grow it keeping integrity of the brand as well as keeping the culture. If youre looking to scale, first you have to learn what youre ready to let go of. For example, you wouldnt buy a larger house and try to take all of the furniture from your old house and squeeze it in. What are you willing to let go of in terms of processes, in terms of systems, in terms of attitudes to groechlt secow. Secondly, you need to let your team know your growth plans because that will help you get to the next level or keep you stagnant. Furthermore, do one thing a day to scale. Whether its making one additional call, whether its making up one hour earlier a day, whether its calling one more prospect or hitting one additional networking event. You have to do that one extra thing that will set you apart from your competitors and thats how you scale when you do it consistently, so determine what youre going to let go of, understand how to get your team on board and figure out who is willing to go with you and figure out whats going to help you grow your competition. Its time now for the brain trust where we get to ask real business decisionmakers how they get things done. Today we have jamie kernlima, the founder of i. T. Cosmetics which you started out of your living room and then sold to loreal. And then ken natori. So two Family Businesses because you cofounded yours with your husband. Yes. Today were going to talk about getting retailers to say yes because you both have had to do that. Youve had retailers say no to you for many years and obviously now its successful. Yeah. One of the toughest things to get, but youve got to stay persistent. So i want to know some tips from you about how you got from no to yes. My biggest tip is be ready to hear no. I feel like so many entrepreneurs start to hear no and then start to let that equate to doubt in their own head. Keeping your faith bigger than your fear is huge. We heard no from everyone for years. The biggest thing is just literally being persistent and believing in yourself. Half of the battle is retailers saying that you are that persistent and willing to stick it out. Once you get in their stores or on their sites, then the journey has just begun. So when people keep saying no to you, how do you keep the confidence that, hey, theyre wrong and im right . Really its all about product. Its got to start with product first. If you dont have product thats unique, different shated and the customers can appreciate, its difficult to get them to say yes. The way retail is played out now, its a much different ball game. Its really all about shortterm results. It used to be about longterm partnerships, there was patience, retailers werent okay if it didnt do well at first. Now if it doesnt produce results right away, its very difficult. It also comes to partnering with retailers. Theyre more willing to work with you, take a chance on you if you can partner and really Work Together to come up with a winning product. What does that mean, partner with retailers . Are you changing your product . Sometimes retailers will say you present something and they want it to be a little bit different. Today i think you have to be a little more flexible to terms of meeting those needs. Brands are being asked more and more to take some of the financial risk off the table. Sometimes it works for a brand, sometimes it doesnt. Given the way the retail environment is changing, being flexible in terms of how you work with these retailers is very important. I want to know an example of how youve been flexible. Qvc is a great example. They are one of our largest partnerships and they are multiplatform. In terms about getting a yes from them, its about delivering on every platform. We will do Facebook Live things with them. When we go live on air, its 24 7. We give them unique bundles of products you cant find anywhere else. Its all about meeting those customers where theyre at on every single platform that the retailer operates in also. So are you both having to work harder for the retailers now than companies had to 15 years ago . Absolutely. It used to be we could come out with one product, one set of products and see the same stuff in different retailers. Now the calls for us to make things that are more exclusive. These retailers, there are so many brands trying to get into so few doors, we operate at the high end. We used to be able to sell to 100 department stores, now its about four or five. So really as a brand to get into these stores and have a meaningful partnership, you have to Work Together and maybe be more flexible than 15 years ago. Also the retailers are working hard for us. When you look at these disruptive platforms, whether its digital or on television, qvc is in 100 million homes, or youre getting promoted on their social initiatives and their channels, thats also a gift so i think it goes both ways. But to your point earlier, theres so much pressure for instant results because youre getting Live Feedback and seeing live data on sellout, whether its online or on television. Everything is moving so quickly. How do you deal with that, right . When youre building a brand or launching a new product, you dont necessarily get those instant results, so how do you deal with that with your retailers . Its tough. You have to really prepare them sometimes to say if something doesnt work right out of the gate, maybe the sellthrough wasnt as high as we expected in the first month, but look at the engagement were doing. You both have done it very successfully so thank you very much for your advice. Thank you. All right. Hands down this is the best yourbizselfie we have ever gotten. It comes from david stephenson, he owns kastle pigeon in lexington, kentucky. His company that he runs with his wife, angie, sells pigeon nutritional supplements, pigeonthemed apparel and prints of his pigeon photographs. Now all of you out there try to beat him for the best selfie. Get out your smartphone, take a selfie of you and your business and send it to us at yourbusiness msnbc. Com or tweet it to msnbcyourbiz and please use yourbizselfie. Thank you for joining us today. We love hearing from you, so please email us if you have anything to say at yourbusiness msnbc. Com and also please go to our website, its openforum. Com yourbusiness. We also put stuff on 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, so you can get business done. American express open. Good morning and welcome to politics nation. Another trump official is out this week as health and Human Services secretary, tom price, resigns. The fallout over his use of pricey private jets. It comes as republicans pivot to tax reform and President Trump takes heat over puerto rico. Well take a look at just whos getting the help on both issues