My name is mike, im in Product Development at comcast. Were working to make things simple, easy and awesome. Good morning. Coming up on msnbcs your business. The owner of a toy store becomes a City Councilman. A brooklynbased author fights against amazon by opening a neighborhood bookstore. That plus instore techniques that attract customers during the holiday season. When it comes to growing your companies, we have your backs. Thats all coming up next on your business. Announcer msnbc your
business is sponsored by American Express. Dont do business without it. Hi there everyone. Im jj ramberg. Welcome to your business. The show dedicated to helping your growing companies. Small business saturday is coming up. In los angeles, Celine Ba Shea the owner of a childrens boutique wanted to take an active role in getting her community to support Small Businesses. When a position opened up on the Neighborhood Council, celine jumped at the chance to become a true advocate by running for office. Soes coowner of louisiana ling. Based in a neighborhood in los angeles never imagined she would become active in local government. The Neighborhood Council is made up of 19 Board Members and last may there was a seat open for the business representative. They were really urging people to step up and run for this position. Although shes only in her 20s and has the daytoday operations of her thriving Small Business to run, she jumped at the opportunity to run for the open position and become an advocate for Small Businesses in her community. I was inspired by me realize thag i could have a larger impact if i thought outside of these four walls. I figured instead of focusing on helping my business thrive, if i helped my neighborhood and community thrive, then everyone wins. To take on a challenge of running for official position in City Government on a local level is just so brave. Celine and her coowner credits the original owner and founder for inspiring them both as leaders and Business Owners starting in their late teens. We learned so much from her. Just the relationship she built with people. I think what was beneficial to us was how much trust she instilled in us. We learned a lot from feeling like our opinions were valid and worth sharing. And she gave us a lot of freedom in the store as sales girls. Ling was head of her time when she opened the doors to the whimsical world of this store in 2004. She set out to create a one top shop for cool moms on the hunt for edgy clothing, vibrant art and toys with a sense of humor. She also experimented with interactive experiences for her customers during their retail journey. We had music classes in the back. At one point there was an art class. This space back here was our kind of little think lab. And then we also had a hair salon. La la ling was quickly a goto destination in l. A. For anyone looking for family fun and the latest Fashion Accessories in furnishings. Seven years in, when the economy was taking a toll on the retail world, ling started thinking about closing up shop. The concept of closing the store was tearing at my soul. Its a lot of blood, sweat and tears to open your own business. Retail, for boutiques is really tough. She couldnt fathom the idea of la la ling closing its doors and the thought of taking over the reins with celine bake front and center in her mind. The courage at that age is now when youre older and thinking about it, i dont think i would take the same risk. If i have anything to take credit for, its just to take risks. You cant challenge yourself and open your world unless you take
risks and open your eyes and expose things to other people. I think thats a big reason why we felt confident to even consider buying the store. Because she had allowed us to run things the way we saw fit. Cara approached celine to see if she was on board with the bold idea. I called celine and asked her if she wanted to buy it with me. She said no. And i said think about it. I thought she was insane. Because i was 23. I had never considered owning a business. I didnt feel qualified. I Didnt Go To College and thought i was going to be a singer. So the idea of owning a business at first did not ring true to my vision. After two days of fear and doubt swirling in her mind, celine was in. So when ling finally sat her team down for the dreaded tough talk, she had no idea the Surprise Cara and celine had in store for her. We literally stopped her in
her tracks and said, well, how would you feel if we took over . I burst into tears. Because to me, its the best thing because its sort of like handing over a Family Business to two of my daughters in some ways. For them to take over ownership was a dream come true. They had such great ideas and new energy. The surrounding community of Small Businesses and loyal following of la la ling customers immediately embraced celine and cara as the new owners. Its really closeknit. People are loyal to this neighborhood. Theres a real sense of identity. Our neon sign that says meet me in lass fee liz is an acknowledgment that this is a space for the neighborhood to come hang out with us. Celines passionate and welcome coming spirit played a big part in her getting elected to the Neighborhood Council. Celine grew up here. She cares about the neighborhood and Small Businesses. Becoming a powerful voice for
change. A voice to help bridge together Small Businesses and open communication lines. A voice to make their collective voices matter has been life changing for her. Its been rewarding and im excited to use that platform to help the store and all the other stores as well. Crocosms of friendships. We can all gain by working together and having more communication between us. Im happy to be that liaison between all the local businesses. Its a bit surreal. Sometimes i feel like i dont know what im doing. And thats kind of exciting in a way. If theres anything i learned from owning a business is to not be afraid to ask questions. The voice of a Neighborhood Council can have a real impact. Weve drafted things called Community Impact statements and those get added on to, like a
bill that a City Councilman want want to pass with our official opinion about it. Were living in very challenging political times. So it really i think is so inspiring for young girls like my daughter who is 11 to see women taking on Leadership Roles in our government. It starts at the local level. I think its an inspirational Small Business saturday is all about reminding people that if necessity dont go to their local stores, they will go away. Nothing illustrates that more than the loss of so many bookstores around the country over the past decade. When her local brooklyn bookstore closed, emma straub didnt want readers left without an alternative to amazon. She opened books are magic. Jenna bush hager has her story. You knew the place to read. Yes. Your store is titled books are
magic. Which could be the best name for any store ever. Thank you. Its a lit whimsical. Like you. Yeah. The author of the vacationers and modern lovers is working on a fifth. Last year she opened this bookstore in brooklyn. As long as they want to read books, they can come in. Books are magic. What makes books magic is they only look like objects but theyre doors. You open it up and walk right through and go somewhere else. Straub isnt just a best selling author. Shes mom to river and miles. Emma and her husband michael own and operate books are magic. Your baby, this business, is about ayearold or a little more. Whats it been like . What have you learned . It has been bananas. Every day is busier than we
thought. There are a lot of us who are advocates, not only for our own books but for books, period. There are tons of articles that say that people are reading less now than ever. What do you say . The people who are now saying oh, since people started reading on their ereaders, i havent read a book. They probably werent reading before. I dont read as quickly as i used to. I have two children and april bookstore and a lot of other responsibilities. Its still the thing i love most. Made me mistyeyed. I love when i cry when the person doesnt. Thats beautiful. I can imagine. Thats because im a librarian. I love books. I feel the same way. I cant stop looking around. Sensory overload. That means were doing the right thing. The right thing is paying off. Theyve sold 150,000 books in just their first year. I cant help but stop. A poetry gumball machine. Its the best thing in the store. Love, i can almost imagine summer how the green world begins. I want to cry. Its full of them. Take that and keep it with me forever. Yes. What should i be reading. Take me over. Its about two pus i cats who look alike. But different. One of them likes potato chips. I did have a cat that ate dried pasta. I know. Your favorite part of the store is this octagon. Its this secret little hideout. Magic place. Where you can be by yourself and have your book. Is that a good place to read . Pretty good. Are you living your dream . Yes. I write books, people pay me to do it and i get to talk to people about books all day long. Its a dream. Thats a dream. Actress Monica Potter takes Hometown Pride to a new level with her new brand Monica Potter home. With a Flagship Store in ohio and ecommerce site, shes making it easy for fans to shop local. Shes acted alongside some of hollywoods biggest names. Like nicolas cage and Morgan Freeman and received widespread love at Christina Braverman in the tv show parenthood. You just listen to the music. Okay . But what you probably dont know about Monica Potter is that shes also a successful entrepreneur. I always had this business planned. I wanted to do Something Like paul newman. I love him so much. Hes just one of my biggest inspirations aside from my dad. Hes from ohio, too. In 2012, she started Monica Potter home an ecommerce site featuring home goods and Beauty Essentials that are all made by
local cleveland artisans and craft people, just like monica herself. Growing up in cleveland, i saw how hard people worked and how much they care about their city and their community. Completely selffunded, for monica this isnt just a side gig. Its a true passion project. Im lucky and im grateful because i get to act and then i get to use that cash saying it bluntly, use the cash to put into this and create a business. With her name front and center on all the labels, she makes sure each and every item is something she wants to sell to their customers. People work hard for their money. Im not going to sell them junk or make junk. If theres a bad batch of something, we throw it out. My standard is would i give this to my mom or my kids . If the answer is no, then it goes out. Thinking of her fans as family led her to find new ways
to interact with them face to face. We were online and people loved the stuff. Then i love to connect with people. So i thought, this could be a great opportunity to have a Destination Location in garrettsville, ohio, where we have a storefront, we have our production room, we have our shipping and handling and distribution. As the brand expands and reaches new customers, monica measures success in more than just the bottom line. Its equally about sharing monicas first love. Her love for her hometown. Cleveland. All of the products that we make, the candles, its all here. Its sourced here, made here. Sometimes i have to be careful because you can get so caught up in the business part of it that ive been lately losing sight as to why we started this to begin with. And that was to bring jobs back home and hopefully expand and help other communities and
cities. Im in las vegas at shop. Org where a lot of people are thinking about, if they have a Brick And Mortar store, how do they get customers into their store to actually buy something . It is something my next guest thinks about a lot. Hes the ceo of brick works. Its nice to see you. Thanks for stopping by. Thanks for having me, jj, i appreciate it. I think what you were doing is fascinating. Your whole company is about taking someone who is maybe browsing on their phone and getting them into a retailer. Thats right. We focus on helping brands and retailers to engage online traffic who has intent to go to a store and get those customers into a store through a branded experience and offer them a higher level of experience when they get to store. What we find is that those sorts of experiences are a catalyst for Driving Value out of those customers. Lets take the words out and just say, give me an example. I am a spice store. What do i need to do to get people in my door . So we dont work with any spice retailers. Its a hypothetical. You would use your website to market content around spices that you offer in your store and brickwork would place a button, Simple Button that would allow you to come in and have a consultation with an expert spice mer kmant or associate inside that store who would help you build out a catalog of spices to bring into your kitchen. Do you believe if you are a Brick And Mortar retailer, he need to have some kind of experience . Absolutely. Brick and mortar, the future of it is experiential retail. You need to pull your associates, the services you can offer, the uniqueness of the Product Categories you can bring to physical retail. Pull those together in a coordinated bay way to add
higher level of experience for the customer. If not, i can buy it online anywhere. Its so easy today to buy online. You have to come with a higher Value Proposition instore to get the customer in store and thats in experience. Im selling spices at my store. I put something on my site, my mobile site as well. Come on thursday and im going to have a cooking with spices class. Why do you need a company like yours . What kind of value do you add . The reality of retail today is that ecommerce for the most part is fairly straightforward. Set up a warehouse and a website, i i add a checkout and i can get going. We see that with the proliferation of brands and merchants on platforms like shopify. Physical retail is complex and its complex because it involves people, it involves locations throughout the country and so for the kinds of brands of retailers we Workw Enterprise Scale Brands with 200 to 2,000
stores, you need software that serves as a system of record and a system of engagement to really manage all of the complex ways, all of the business rules, really manage the configuration of what the experiences look like and then be able to mine the data that we can deliver off of those experiences so that you can action in the future on how to improve, enhance the experiences at a local level but at scale. Its important to not only say hey come to my Cooking Class but you also want to say, who looked at that . Who clicked through and came and who didnt come . Who wha else can did they look at on the site . So we you want to be able to gather information about those customers so you can offer them a better experience when they arrive in store and you can
drive a higher Conversion Rate and higher average order value. Im going to use the spice. I come into the spice store because i saw that Cooking Class. Someone elses spice store knows jj always cooks with cinnamon. Once she gets here, im going to teach her something about cinnamon and try to sell her this rare cinnamon from madagascar. Yes. We may not know you always cook with cinnamon but we can help the brand or retailer that you have an affinity for cinnamon or browsing that type of spice online and pass that through to an associate to give that you experience. Its so interesting. Digital, Brick And Mortar, everything is converging. Ultimately, its about each particular customer. In general, i think we experience the world with our phone in our hand today. This convergence of physical and digital is coming over retail like a wave right now. Congratulations on your store
i. Thank you. Were in the middle of the third season of our podcast been there, built that. I get to talk to Business Owners about the highs and the really hard things trip down to atlanta, georgia, to hang out with ben chestnut. He tells me how his side hustle turned into a business that did half A Billion Dollars in revenue last year and how he was offered A Billion Dollars to sell his company. That is right, A Billion Dollars. And he turned it down. He tells me why. So i hope you get a chance to listen to it. If you do, please leave some comments. We love hearing what you think. You can find it wherever you get your podcasts. When we come back, jean mark stops by to tell us about Tax Deductions you should be looking into before the year ends. The community doesnt just have Small Businesses, it is Small Businesses. And thats why American Express founded Small Business saturday. So, this year lets all get up, get out and shop small on november 24th. I got croissant. Small business saturday. A small way to make a big difference. When youre building a company, youre going in one direction, and all the sudden multiple directions open up you can go in. It is it better to stay focused on the path youre on, or change and pivot . Some of the best entrepreneurs and companies are the ones that try to find a way to say yes. However, its really easy as a
startup to get what i call shiny objected syndrome, all those things coming your way. Theres three things you can do to evaluate these opportunities and figure out which ones to take. First, does it align with your strategy . Oftentimes we confuse tactics with strategy. So after we analyze your customer base, segments to figure out whether theres a real product fit. Second thing you can do is to ask yourself, well, what would i have to give up . Entrepreneurship isnt a big buffet where you can keep piling on new tasks like you would mac and cheese. You have to give something up. Is this opportunity going to help you get ahead more than what youre giving up . And the last thing you need to do is to ask yourself, does this new opportunity align with my companys values . Those big values we put up on motivational posters arent just for looks. Theyre to help you make decisions. If it meets those things, you can be willing to give something up. I say find a way to say yes. The year is coming to an end, and Business Owners should be
thinking now of getting their taxes in order. So what are some of the best moves to help you save on your taxes this year . Here to help us is gene marks, head of the marks group and columnist for the washington post. I think we do this every year. We do, and a cpa. Right. Okay. What do we do . First of all, meet with your accountant. We still have some time to do this. Not everybody is crazy about meeting with their accountant, but its the thing you got to do. So big changes in tax reform, one is for passthrough organizations. If youre like an S Corporation or a limited liability, a partnership, one of those things, there are some big Tax Advantages to you maybe. You need to get your arms around that. You might want to consider the options of changing from an S Corporation to a c corporation. Or if youre a c corporation, maybe changing to an S Corporation. This quickly . No, you can get all of your paperwork in order and ready to go so youre all set for january
1st of next year. With all the rule changes, it might benefit you to change status. Do the work now so youre ready to go. So thats number one. Okay. Capital equipment you talk about. Correct. Accelerated depreciation. Because of tax reform, you can spend up to A Million Bucks now on capital equipment. And you dont really have to pay for this stuff. You can put a down payment on the equipment, finance the rest, and its still historically low interest rates. Get it into service by the end of the year. Boom, a full years deduction up front, which is a big deal. A big deal. So buy that capital equipment. Thats number two. Number three, if you dont have a 401 k plan, get a freaking 401 k plan. Every business should have it. Of course, it benefits both the Business Owners and the employees, very inexpensive to set up. Because of tax reform, you now have an encouragement. You get a 500 a year credit for the next three years, a credit on your taxes just for setting
up a 401 k plan. Even if you dont contribute to it . Even if you dont contribute to it. As long as you get it set up for your employees to use, you get the tax credit for doing that. And by the way, this is only for companies with less than 100 employees. But i think thats most of our audience here. Its a big deal. To be clear, if you set up a 401 k plan, you as a company dont need to contribute to it. It can be just a service to your employees. There are all kinds of rules you need to think through. Correct. And Retirement Savings is obviously a huge crisis, so the government is trying to encourage us to save more money. Theyre saying to Business Owners, get a 401 k set up, and if you do that, well give you a tax credit. So thats number three. I want to remind people, because i remember when we set up ours, its a little complicated. All of this stuff im talking about isnt stuff that happens overnight. Talk to your adviser, talk to your accountant. And there are people who set it up for you easily. Finally, the work opportunity tax credit. This is a big deal. It expires at the end of 2019. So for particularly Small Businesses, if you hire somebody thats longterm unemployed, somebody thats on welfare, somebody thats a veteran, somebody that just got out of prison, if you provide that person with a job, you can get up to a 9600 credit on their compensation against your taxes you owe. Its part of this work opportunity program. Its been around for a few years. A lot of Business Owners dont even theyre not even aware it exists. And how do you find these people . So first of all, finding and recruiting people that are longterm unemployed, thats a whole other conversation. Lets assume you found one. Lets assume you hired a veteran or somebody that just got out of prison or somebody on welfare last year or two years ago, you can go back a couple years ago and amend your returns and apply for that credit. The only issue that i just have to warn you is its a complicated calculation. Your accountant might not be that crazy about doing it. Theres a Boutique Industry of people that are out there that are able to do that stuff. Just google work opportunity tax credit, find a consultant to help you. Go back and get money o on yon taxes. So starting a 401 k plan, taking advantage of that depreciation, and give thought about potentially changing your tax status for 2019. Because of all these lower rate, changing your status might benefit you. One more thing. Its really hard to find good people these days. And there are a lot of amazing people who fit into the categories you were talking about. They do. Not only that, were talking about employers having a hard time paying people and keeping up. Well, if the government is going to give you back a few thousand dpl dollars, put it in your pocket or pay the employee. The government is trying to help. We just have to pay attention. Thank its a lot, gene. Thanks, j. J. This weeks your biz selfie
comes from dawn kelly, who owns the nourish spot in jamaica, new york. Shes into Healthy Eating and her Company Sells all kinds of juices and smoothies and has a make your own salad bar. Thank you so, so much for sending that in, dawn. We love seeing your picture. And best of luck with your business. Thank you so much for joining us today. Heres something ive been thinking about. If you get a chance to listen to the podcast, Ben Chestnut Talks to me about a time when his business was very stressful and he was bringing that stress home without even realizing it. I hear this from a lot of ceos and their partners at home. So what we all need to remember is that work is hard. Sometimes its really fun, and sometimes it is really complicated. But we have to think about what were bringing home with us and talk to people about it. Talk to your family about it. Talk to the people in your business about it. Talk to friends. We all go through this at some time. Ben chestnut is very honest about how once he realized it, he was able to talk to his wife about it, and everything turned
out fine. Wed love to hear from you. If you have any questions or comments about todays show, email us at yourbusiness msnbc. Com. You can also click on our website. Its msnbc. Com yourbusiness. We posted all of the segments from todays show, plus a whole lot more. Also, dont forget to connect with us on all of our digital and social media platforms. If you want to hear that story about ben chestnut, check out the podcast. Its called been there, built that. It is in its third season, and you can download it for free from Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. We look forward to e seeiseeing next time. Until then, im j. J. Ramberg. Remember, we make your business our business
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