Msnbc your business is sponsored by american express, dont do business without it. Your business is sponsored by american express. Dont do business without it. Hi, everyone. Im jj ramberg. And welcome to your business, the show dedicated to help your growing business. Does the rise of Online Shopping business mean the death of brick and mortar . One pair of entrepreneurs isnt waiting to find out. They have developed a new brick and mortar Business Model that doesnt depend on making sales or stocking inventory. And they still make a profit. How are they doing it . And will they succeed . We went to Silicon Valley to find out. When you walk into this San Francisco store, every move you make is turned into data. Here you can see that the customer just kind of walks by, not stopping at the product. But once he enters the zone of the product, it turns green. This is beta. According to the founders, it may be the new face of brick and mortar retail. Our model is not built on sales. It doesnt matter to us if you buy now or somewhere else. What did he just say . It doesnt matter to us if you buy now or somewhere else. Beta doesnt make any money from selling the products on display. And its customers are not the people shopping in the aisles. The money beta makes comes from the brands displaying the products in the store. The brands pay a Monthly Subscription fee and it covers essentially the products. As we have heard, the Retail Center is not doing well as consumers shift to Online Shopping. The problem is the way people like to shop now doesnt agree with Business Model that were constructed around. How often do you see people now that are even purchasing something in the store . Increasingly, people dont love to buy things there. So they wondered, would they find a way to make money from the foot traffic instead of the sales . We have hundreds of thousands of people that walk through the store every month. And this is an opportunity for the products to get discovered in this, they have trained staffers available to answer the questions. We love that the customers can come here to experience the brands. If they buy here, great. If they go somewhere else and buy it, thats terrific, too. He gets something extremely valuable. We have a lot of data here that makes us feel great with the end customers. The beta stores have been turned into a Research Laboratory where manufacturers get realtime feedback on customers reaction. Everything from traffic, impressions, customer engagement, demos, to sales data. The typical store about 3,000 feet has cameras on it. And they are being shown here. As you browse the products, we are able to stop and measure your intention for product and the ones youre ignoring walking by. I have no problem with the Business Model. I think it is very clever. Thats not what bothers me. Its the collection of video without our knowledge at all. Bob is a former Advertising Agency owner and industry critic. He worries about privacy around the socalled surveillance marketing. I dont think they are doing anything nefarious, honestly. I dont. But when i walked in, i should have been notified i was being videotaped and wasnt. Most people know if you walk into a store, youre going to be monitored. Theres no difference. The difference is intent. You dont know how its going to be disposed of over time. In light of the recent disclosures about facebooks disregard for customer protection, bob suggests it may be time for b8ta to ignore this. If they said, by the way, we use cameras to watch the customers shop and want you to know that were transparent about that, we dont identify who you are. And we have discovered it. They are open on how the stores operate and dont want to hide anything. When it comes to provecy we are transparent and have no problem speaking to it. And we are open about what were doing. At the same time, i dont believe theres any postings. After the interview, he got back to us to say the contact is anonymous and the data is encrypted a encrypted. While Retail Stores collect data about their customers for decade, full lynn and bebo. This is a marketing platform at the end of the day. Thats how we think about it. Were catching up with the Business Model that the internet has enabled. We are just a first, but we are not going to be enabling this last. There will be a long line of customers like this. And long gone are the days when using video to market your company is just for businesses with deep pockets. Today with not that much work or expense, anyone can put together a nice looking video. According to our video, you should. They Just Launched a new product called youtube director on site. You can advertise on the platform. Good to see you. Thank you for having me. Video is a great way to get the message out. Exactly. We know the Small Businesses have so many stories to tell, everything from why they got the idea, why their customers love this. You have sight, sound and motion to bring the story to life. But it is also increasingly where your customers are. More and more people turn to video ondemand, youtube, and you mentioned the customers there where our business is. Lets watch the few minutes or few seconds of the first one. Island creek oysters, what did they do well there . First, what they did great in the ad is clearly right at the top of the video mentioning the name of the business and a number of chefs they provide, to give a lot of authenticity and credibility to them as a business. In case someone spills the rest of the ad. Our menu keeps an eye on Culinary Trends while still serving the classic bar food. So here were going for authenticity. Exactly. I love this one because so many Small Businesses think if you get into video business, you have to use expensive actors, when you use your business, it will come to sense. It looks fun and engaging to check it out. And it is fun for the employees to become a part of this and share with their friends, also. You dont have that much time. Peoples Attention Span is short. Focus on the one key thing that differentiates your business. Why your customers should care about you. One great example of this is a Company Called hey chesterfield. An Upholstery Company based in San Francisco. In their ads, they do a great job explaining first why you want to buy vintage furniture versus new, and showing how the business will run. Why not have a bill for how you play . What did they do that was so great. Close the video with a call to action. The viewer needs to know what to do next if they want to engage with you. So in the last website, they ended with that so you know how to engage with their business. Thank you so much, kate, for stopping by. Sure. For several weeks now we have been doing our elevator pitch from here at hsn, the original tv network. We have made some dreams come true and we have had a few disappointments. But today were going to find out again if our elevator pitcher makes the cut. We are going to see if they get the chance to sell their product live here in a studio just like this one to 91 million households. We wish them, i wish them, the best of luck. Myomi. Hi so excited to see you. And im so excited to hear your pitch. This is a big deal. It is. Tell me the name of your product again. It is earring backings. Four years in the making for you . Youre going to be pitching to two people. These two people are going to decide if you get a chance to be on hsn. How do you feel about this . Oh, god. Nervous . Yes, a little. Youre going to do great im quite sure. Dara trujillo and matt demurs. The makeup looks great. Lets go see them. Hi, im from chrysmela. This is the best earring back. At least 86 of us have lost the earring back once, but not more. Chrysmela has been in five countries. It uses precision technology. Inside the tiny devices are three things that attach to the back. It stays long until you unlock it. I am so thrilled so their this fantastic innovation with millions of people in the states. Thank you. Perfect timing. Thank you. Not Perfect Timing for me. I just lost a gorgeous earring that my husband bought me, which now he knows, which i had not told anyone yet. So i need this. What do you guys think . Good job, by the way. Well, i love it. Quite honestly, im wearing clipones because of the fact that i lose earrings all the time. My earring backs fall off. So real quick question, does it help to hold it in place in the front as well . Yes. Great question. We help so many customers requesting the lift function. So we developed a sister product called chrysmela extra that comes to give you extra lift and support. What do you think, matt, how dud she do . Good. One of the things you want to think about is you have a lot of other potential competitors in the market for earring backs. Really play out to, what are the true technologies and benefits of chrysmela, including flexibility from the multiple post widths. You just stopped shaking. This is such a big chance for you. It is. Now well find out what the answer is. Is miami going to get the chance to pitch live to millions of hsn customers . Are you ready for this . Now youre shaking again, all right, this could happen. All right. Lets hear. Check to see the on air if it goes. Is she going to get the chance to pitch live . Oh, yay thank you so much i will be your first customer. Congratulations. Thank you. Miami, oh, my god, four years. Four years, wow. We love making dreams come true, girl. Thank you. All right. What does this mean to you . Oh, i dont know. Im speechless. Im just so happy. Im so thrilled. I fell in love with this product when i first saw it in japan on one of my business trips. And i fell in love and knew it yesterday. And i knew there was a huge market in the states. Did you think you were going to get the yes on air . I wasnt sure. We are tough cookies. Thank you. We wish you the best of luck. Thank you for the opportunity. Thank you. Im taking these. We love our pets. Americans spent nearly 70 billion on them last year. Inspired by the rescue dogs, marie is here with two thumbsup from pooches everywhere. I always loved animals. When i started this, i didnt know it would look like this. Marie moody founded stella ch chewys in 2003. The idea came to her after receiving devastating news from her vet. Chewy was one of the onceinalifetime dogs. When i first got chewy, i was working with the fashion industry and he was sick. And the vet said, this dog is not going to make it. And i sort of had this epiphany and started doing research on pet food. Because even though weve domesticated them, the dna was 99 wolf. It made a lot of sense to go back to how they ate in the wild. She fed him meat, fish and vegetables. How did chewy respond . He got 100 better. Not even slightly but 100 better and lived to be almost 17. When did you realize, okay, this is something that other people want . I think i started to think the most important thing you can do is feed it a highquality diet. She spent six months drafting a Business Plan and drained her savings account. What will the early days like . I had industrial freezers in my living room for, like, four years. In the beginning it delivered by taxi. I did get a used minivan to turn that into a political move. This was a Smart Business move. Sales took off and soon the kitch kitchenrun business needed a new base. She moved to her hometown of milwaukee where 300 employees now work. And where bring your best friend to work day is every day. This makes it a pretty fun place to work. Yes. You can see, these dogs are amazing. Its the food. The pet food is made from raw food. This is where all the stella chewy magic happens. In 2010, she stepped down as the chairwoman. I think a lot of people have a difficult time giving up titles or delegating and that is not an issue for me. So part of it was to spend more time with your son. By the time i was able to step back, he was going into second graude, third grade. Do you have advice for other women wanting to stair their companies . For me, i didnt have a choice. I wanted to do this. Her determination paid off. Today stilly chewys is sold in 5,000 Stores Nationwide and now a multibillion dollar industry. People love their dogs. What do you think it takes to be a good boss . I think if i had to say, certainly, some degree of compassion and everyowill be on team. This week were talking to s ceo of shop runner but is best known for creating ok cupid and match. Com. Sam tells us about starting a small company, what its like to making the transition to being acquired, running a Large Company and why he moved from Online Dating to Online Shopping. I hope you all get a chance to listen to it, its really interesting. If you do, give us some feedback. The podcast is still pretty new and we love to hear what you think. So go listen for free. Its called been there, built that. You can find it on tune in or wherever you get your podcasts. Still to come, how to properly compensate your sales force and why you need to keep a close eye on employee engagement. baby crying dont juggle your home life and work life without it. And dont forget who youre really working for without it. Funding to help grow your business. Another way we have your back. The powerful backing of american express. Dont do business without it. As part of our growth, we are building our sales organization. Im interested in knowing what suggestions or advice you have in structuring our Compensation Plan for our sales force. So i would say that Compensation Plans are not a game of perfect and its really just about getting something done and established. A couple of years ago our sales team had requested that their compensation package really be more based on objective measures as opposed to subjective measures. So we definitely took that Employee Feedback and implemented a new plan. As we developed that plan, we got most of the leg work done in a relatively short period of time but there were some things that we were trying to perfect and ultimately realized that no matter what, there were going to be some flaws in the program. Ultimately we really just decided lets get a new plan in place. Lets take that Employee Feedback in stride. Knowing that the plan wasnt going to be perfect, we also committed to making changes and really to adjusting that plan year after year. We now have the top two tips you need to know to help you grow your business. Lets introduce our panel and get their advice. Stephanie was the ceo of ross organic, which she recently sold and entrepreneur and investor scott gurfane is the cofounder of socket and you also just sold a business of the congratulations to both of you. Were getting advice from two very successful people today. Lets start with you, scott. The top tip is what i call the zero marketing strategy. Its kind of just saying no to save your business and get what you really want. If you think about yourself, youve got principles and values, things that are like a moral compass that you dont go against. You build the same attributes into your business. So as youre building your business and things start to unfold and your plan starts to unfold and you go into the market, you encounter all sorts of different situations, right . The retailer you wanted to go into wants to take your brand in but all of a sudden the margin structure doesnt allow you to do it profitably. An investor wants to come in but the valuation is way too low. Its at that moment that you have to stop and say, no, this is against my plan. If i go forward, my entire plan will fall apart and there will be irreparable damage. What happens often is if youre building something of value in the market, at that point of saying no, you get to go out and exercise the business the way you need to do it. What you often find is that those partners end up coming back to the table and you get exactly what you want and youre much stronger for it. But what you also might find is a drop in revenue or something happens along the way, right . You make it sound so easy. You say no and everything turns out great. Really what happens is you say no, you lose an opportunity and it shows up in the bottom line. You may suffer in the short term but youll prosper in the long term. Very often you see businesses making shortterm decisions that dont benefit them in the long run. Okay. Stephanie. My top tip is all about communication, transparency and team building. Its regarding surveying employees. Every year we would take an annual survey of our employees and get a feel for what they felt the real issues were. How many employees did you have . 32 employees. How did you get them to tell the truth . Because theres no way to be anonymous with 32 employees. Well, number one, we did do an anonymous survey. But no one feels like its anonymous with 32 people. What we told people originally was were going to put this out for all of you guys to see the results so i had no idea what the results would be when i took over the business. So it was a little bit being vulnerable and saying, hey, guys, lets see whats going on, see where we are and get a baseline. We were just putting forth a fiveyear plan at that time so it gave us a feel for what the hot spots were and what people felt. People were very, very open. They knew id be looking right at it and they had no problem saying exactly how they felt. I think also what you need to manage in that situation, though, is one person being very fired up about one issue. Right. And then not getting it addressed, right, in a way that makes them feel better. So youve opened up the doors, youve asked me to hear what i say, ive told you and now youre not changing it. So what we ended up doing was showing the results to the entire company in an all company, kind of all hands meeting. Yeah, we would go right through it. It would be very, very obvious what the problems were, what the hot spots were, we call them. Yes, it was very obvious. It was like a bar graph. So many people selected 1 or 2 here but most people were 9s or 10s. But in a company of 32 people, one or two people absolutely matter and you dont know who they are. So we would get in teams after the survey. Instead of looking at me, hey, steph, how are you going to fix this . Lets fix this together. I think it gave people a better understanding of these things arent always easy to solve and we needed to get behind it as a team and accept it and understand it. And it also gives you a chance as the owner or team leader to say, look, were not going to fix this. It doesnt fit in with what were doing. Now its up to you, do you want to stay here or not . Great advice. Congratulations to both of you on sales of your companies. Well, our business is based on traffic, and so a great app that i use religiously is called quickalytics. It ties into Google Analytics and gives me uptotheminute information about where our traffic is, our audience and so forth. Thats been very, very helpful, especially with my traveling. One of the apps i like is called downcast. I spent a lot of time on the road. If im not making calls i like listening to podcasts and learn from other leaders who have done interesting or similar things in their businesses. Whats neat about downcast is not only does it constantly refresh the latest episode of the podcast i like but it makes suggestions. Aw watermark is a great tool. Its tree afree and allows you t pictures with your actual logo or website on it. So no matter how far it goes, you have a presence wherever it goes. This weeks your biz selfie comes from trevor bayack from new york city. They pick up, deliver and store luggage equipment and packages. Its for people who dont want to schlep their luggage to and from the airport. Now, why dont you do what trevor did. Take a selfie of you and your business and send it to us at yourbusiness msnbc. Com or tweet it to msnbcyourbiz. Include your name, the name of your business, the location and dont forget to use the hash tag. Thank you all so much for joining us. We love hearing from you. If you have any questions, comments, just want to say hi, email us at yourbusiness msnbc. Com. Also when you get a sec, please check out our website, its msnbc. Com yourbusiness. We put up all of the segments from todays show plus a whole lot more for you. And do not forget to connect with us on all of our digital and social media platforms too. Finally, remember to check out the podcast, been there, built that. Download it from apple or wherever you get your podcast for free. We look forward to seeing you next time. Until then, im j. J. Ramberg, and remember, we make your business, our business. Dont juggle your home life and work life without it. Dont skip that Office Meeting for a Board Meeting without it. Dont keep it real. Keep it going. Or simply keep it in the family without it. And dont turn that business trip, into an overdue family trip without it. The more you live between life and business, the more you need someone at your back. The powerful backing of american express. Dont live life without it. Welcome to politics nation. It took one day for President Trump to praise a white teacher from indiana who this week bravely ran toward a gunman who came into a school as students sought cover and by that saving their lives. But how long did it take him to praise james shaw, the black tennessee man who saved lives when he wrestled a gun from an active shooter